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Making Book on the Booker

By

Paul Levy

Updated Oct. 23, 1998 12:13 a.m. ET

London

O ne drawback of the 30-year-old, &pound;20,000 Booker Prize, which will be presented in a live television broadcast next Tuesday at the Guildhall here, is that it "aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a British or Commonwealth author." This effectively rules out giving the prize for the lifetime achievement of a writer, and should inhibit any consideration of an author's other work. Even so, the juries are usually British, and though it contradicts the rules, the British are deeply...